Conduction, permittivity, internal photoemission, and structure of electron-beam-evaporated yttrium oxide films

A study has been made of thin electron-beam-evaporated yttrium oxide films. The oxide structure was found to be polycrystalline, with grain sizes of the order of 100 Å, by electron microscopy. dc conduction measurements were made and a Frenkel-type of conduction mechanism was proposed. Step response and bridge dielectric loss measurements were compared. Internal photoemission was used to obtain metal/oxide barrier heights of 3.14 and 3.72 eV in an Al-Y2O3-Al structure.